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Youth in the Arab world


Youth consist of over 32% of the population of the Arab region. The Arab world comprises 22 countries and territories as designated by the Arab League. Youth between the ages of 15 and 29 years old represent over 100 million of the current population. Since youth are such a large portion of the population, they have the ability to create social change or movements by uniting and mobilizing. The Arab Spring is an example of how youth uniting can have a great influence on policy. By mobilizing and accessing the technology of today, they are able to voice their opinions and views in mass numbers across all media platforms. With the sheer numbers of youth getting involved online, young people are able to draw worldwide attention and help to organize the agendas that they value. Yet, "efforts by the region’s youth to forge a more positive future for them- selves and coming generations has been subsumed by events, and efforts to forge con- structive solutions to the long-standing economic challenges facing the region’s youth have largely been sidelined by more immediate concerns related to security and political stability."

One example of youth creating a change in society is found in Lebanon's parliamentary elections in 2009. After the assassination of Rafic Hariri, a prime minister of Lebanon who helped build the wealth of the country, around 1 million Lebanese took to the streets of Beirut. Their protests efforts to pass voting for their next government leader were successful. Youth played a significant role in the elections of 2009. Even youth who could not vote, due to being under 21, helped fuel activism by using social media to call out youth who they knew had not voted yet. The Lebanese youth created a higher level of importance to politics than any other previous generation. This reshapes the way the people in Lebanon view politics, and ways in which they can create the change they want in the government.

Youth in Tunisia are facing a different problem after their success in Arab Spring revolution. The country is approaching its 2014 elections and are seeing more youth involved in a different political group other than the government. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,

The technology expansions of information and communications technology(ICT) have shaped the way in which youth today are able to communicate. Specifically in Morocco, Facebook completely changed the way social interactions occur between youth. 79% of all Moroccans on Facebook consist of youth between the ages of 15 and 29. The ability of young people to use social media and be proficient creates a generational gap between youth and adults. The Moroccan youth are able to use Facebook as a private way in communicating with minimal adult interaction. With the Arab spring happening around Morocco and surrounding communities, youth were able to set up their own social movement through Facebook. Between January and February 2011, 590,360 new users of Facebook emerged in Morocco alone. Youth's deep understanding of advancements in social media and technology have created and environment where they are able to organize protests. One way that they were successful was known as the 2011–12 Moroccan protests.


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